The Key to the Labyrinth
“Seeing you like this… it’s just like that time.”
Sabrina tried to shake off her anxiety and gently stroked Lienne’s hair, whispering.
“That time, I mean. After our Young Duke left the Fennel Count family, when you suddenly lost consciousness and collapsed.”
“……”
“I thought you were really dead. I only found out later that it was because you helped Rochester’s power manifest.”
Sabrina cleared her trembling voice with a cough and kept smoothing Lienne’s hair.
“I was really scared, you know. Because you wouldn’t open your eyes.”
Lienne’s forehead, touched by Sabrina’s fingertips, was too hot. According to the physician, the fever continued because of an infection at the wound site, and the symptoms worsened every night.
All the skilled doctors agreed that the arrow had missed her vital points. But the wound was too deep, and Lienne suffered from burning fever every night.
It had already been four days since she had come to the Duke’s residence to care for Lienne after hearing the news from Duke Rochester.
“You’re not going to keep your eyes closed for two weeks again this time, are you?”
Moistening Lienne’s parched lips with a water-soaked cloth, Sabrina spoke pleadingly.
“Open your eyes soon, okay?”
“……”
“Why did I come to the Rochester mansion with Julian that morning? If I hadn’t told you that news, would you not be suffering like this?”
Sabrina finally shed tears. Lienne’s words that it wasn’t over until it was over were useless now. The physician shook his head every night while looking at Lienne.
Each time, Sabrina’s heart plummeted endlessly.
Just as Sabrina was re-soaking the cloth in water, a tremendous commotion arose in the garden of the Rochester Ducal residence as the sun was setting. Where Sabrina ran to the window to look, there stood men dressed in black.
“Lienne, the Young Duke has arrived.”
In the garden stood Ricardo, whom Lienne had so longed for.
Even though his arrival wouldn’t make Lienne open her eyes immediately, Sabrina stroked her chest in relief. Standing beside Duke Rochester with an ominous aura, he seemed to have already heard about Lienne’s condition.
Seeing Ricardo disappear inside the door, Sabrina tidied up the lukewarm wet cloth that had been placed on Lienne’s forehead and quietly retreated to a corner of the room.
Immediately, the door burst open and a man engulfed in despair and rage strode in.
Ricardo was stunned by the unbelievable situation.
Seeing Rochester’s messenger waiting for him at the border of the territory, Ricardo’s vision went dark.
Though it was merely writing, he could feel the dismay of his father who must have written the letter with a devastated heart.
Ricardo slowly walked over and collapsed to his knees beside Lienne’s bed.
“Lienne.”
His trembling hand wandered, unable to touch her cheek. A vivid purple rose in the depths of his eyes as he looked at her face, deathly pale as if it would disappear if he touched it.
The woman who had now become his wife was hovering between life and death. The price she paid for risking her life to save none other than his father.
“Weren’t you… afraid?”
What Lienne had sought to save by accepting death and even turning back time was probably not his father but his fate.
Ricardo finally grasped Lienne’s cheek. As he felt the heat against his palm, a held breath burst out.
Just then, the family physician who had heard of Ricardo’s return entered the room. He couldn’t approach Ricardo, who was kneeling before his wife, and circled around them.
“What is her exact condition right now?”
At the sharp question, the physician couldn’t provide a proper answer.
“Tell me the truth.”
The physician looked for a moment at Duke Rochester standing beside him. Only after the Duke nodded in permission did he carefully speak.
“It’s been a full week since she’s been suffering from fever due to the arrow wound.”
“And?”
At Ricardo’s sharp tone, the physician looked at Duke Rochester once more. This time, the Duke stopped him and approached his son directly.
“Ricardo, tonight is… said to be the last crisis.”
Ricardo’s hand touching Lienne’s cheek faltered, but he said nothing.
Duke Rochester couldn’t approach his son further and led everyone in the room outside.
Duke Rochester stood in the corridor waiting for his son to come out. He was tormented by the self-reproach of having failed to protect not only his son’s wife but even his own wife, but he resolved that he must not break down now.
Whenever Gerald wanted to whip himself, he recalled the words Lienne had said just before losing consciousness.
Lienne’s voice was clear as she said she would never let Ricardo succumb to the fate of the oracle.
She had conviction when she said that even oracles could be defied. So he too resolved to stop trying to gauge the future by invoking the fate of the oracle.
All he could do now was support whatever his son wanted to do.
While the Duke was reaffirming his resolve, Ricardo opened the door and came out.
“Father.”
“Yes.”
Contrary to the Duke’s expectation that he would have been suffering with tears streaming down his cheeks, Ricardo looked colder and harder than usual.
“Please watch over Lienne well.”
“Where are… you going?”
“I’m going to bring Mother home.”
Gerald simply closed his eyes tightly and nodded.
The Demahen Knights had already surrounded the imperial palace. Though they couldn’t move rashly with Paula imprisoned in the palace, Gerald could instinctively sense that Ricardo intended to end everything tonight.
“Have you found the key to the labyrinth?”
Ricardo nodded instead of answering. With his gaze fixed on empty air, he rummaged in his breast pocket and pulled out a long iron chain.
At the end of that chain hung a crude key covered in rust, revealing the traces of time.
Ricardo wound the item around his palm several times. His veined hand and deathly pale fingers looked as if they might shatter the key at any moment.
“Just because of this worthless object, so many people have died, Father.”
“Yes, they have.”
Over the past thousand years, this key had always aroused people’s greed and been an object of awe in the history of Dermeier.
This seemingly worthless key was given only to those who became emperor, and when one chosen by the gods inherited the crown, it was placed back in a chest. The location where that chest would be placed was then hidden in a labyrinth known only to the gods.
Instead of asking his son what he would do, Duke Rochester patted his shoulder with trust.
“Now go and bring your mother home. Please.”
“Don’t worry about anything. I will definitely bring Mother back safely.”
Ricardo met Gerald’s eyes and continued in a confident tone.
“Don’t worry too much about Lienne either.”
Ricardo was actually comforting the Duke as he left his wife hovering between life and death to head to enemy territory. At this sight, Gerald finally shed the tears he had been holding back. When had his son grown so much to become greater than himself?
“Lienne will never leave me. Because as she said, I will never succumb to the fate of the oracle.”
Gerald watched with a silent gaze as his son mounted his horse and left for the final battle. By the time Ricardo departed, pitch-black darkness was closing in on the sky that had been dyed red with sunset.
“Paula.”
Gerald quietly called out the name of his beloved wife.
Though not much time had passed, it was the kind of night when that day Lienne had come to rescue him felt like a distant past.
****
Ricardo found Harriot first. Harriot had disappeared somewhere with the saintess immediately after the wedding ceremony.
The Emperor’s reckless move of withdrawing the Demahen Knights from within the imperial palace while bringing people from the Count Serhen family was intended to help Harriot escape to a secret location.
However, some of the Demahen Knights had secretly remained in the imperial palace, and they had already found and been monitoring Harriot’s hiding place.
As soon as news spread that Ricardo had crossed the imperial castle, the Demahen Knights captured Harriot and dragged him before Ricardo. Meeting Harriot in front of the imperial palace, Ricardo glanced at him with indifferent eyes and walked on without a word.
“Wh-what are you trying to do?”
Harriot cried out as if dying, but Ricardo moved as if he hadn’t heard.
“What are you going to do by taking me!”
As he shouted loudly enough to make the surroundings ring, Ricardo frowned completely as if annoyed.
“Be quiet, Harriot. You’re just… like a guide.”
“A g-guide!”
Harriot’s voice was full of fear as he sensed the end.
“A guide to take me to my mother. Once you’ve served your purpose, you’ll die anyway. So there’s no need to hasten your death by screaming at the top of your lungs.”
The place Ricardo arrived at with Harriot was the Grand Temple inside the imperial palace.
He boldly climbed to the top platform of the grand prayer room where only the Emperor and Grand Priest could sit, then made Harriot kneel before him. Though Harriot looked horrified, he dared not disobey Ricardo’s command despite being bound.